Vacant Sanity
by b4tmans
Summary: Naboo was nice. Rishi was nice. Hell, Ryloth was nice too. But Tatooine? No. Not nice at all. Not in the slightest bit. Being stuck here with a bunch of Clones and Jedi's? Even worse. Especially for a Sith like Nova. Rex/OC
1. How She Got There

Nova Brin stalked quietly to the bridge of _The Invisible Hand_, sighing to herself. The awfully massive form of General Grievous stood there staring out into space with the Mandolorian Governor Pre Vizsla. The two were talking to each other, quietly. Too quietly. Grievous coughed and hacked.

Upon approaching, Nova made her presence known by making her foot-steps louder. Her black boots clicked as she gracefully made her way up the stairs to the bridge. Grievous spun around along with Governor Vizsla.

"Evening Miss Brin." Pre greeted, taking her gloved-hand into his and kissing it lightly. Nova nodded.

"Good Evening Governor. Good Evening Grievous." She smiled and stepped in-between the two men, placing her elbows onto the railing, staring out the large window. Nova stared out the window as space zoomed by.

Oh, how she hated traveling at Light-Speed. It made her want to puke.

Turning away from the window, she leaned back on the railing.

"Where are we going?" Nova asked cocking an eyebrow.

"Coruscant. To meet Bane and the others." Pre answered. Grievous muttered something under his breath about 'stupid Bounty Hunters'.

"Ugh. Bane and his little 'group' are nothing but trouble. If the Republic paid him more than us, he would kill us all." Brin spat venomously.

"Yes, but... Isn't that what Bounty Hunters do, dear Nova?" Vizsla questioned. The amusement in his tone made Nova want to slap him across the face.

"Do not sound so amused Governor, I think he would kill you _first_." Grievous started.

Brin chuckled. Pre didn't make a sound.

Grievous continued to discuss Bane's payment with Vizsla. For which most of, Nova Brin blocked out. She didn't like Bane, Aurra Sing, or Assassin Droids... They were just men, or women in some cases, killing for money.

All of a sudden our ship lurched and slowed down. Alarms started to ring out. The droids started to chatter nervously. All three of the warlords looked at each other. _'Not good. Not good at all.'_

"Sir, our Hyper-Drive just failed on us..." One of the droids yelped.

"We just lost Engine 2!" Another remarked. Grievous jumped over the railing, and landed hear the control panels.

"Move!" He slapped the droids out of it's seat and sent him flying. Nervously tapping at the ships controls Grievous let out a frustrated scream. Nova rushed to the controls on the other side of the room.

"We've been sabotaged." Pre muttered up on the bridge.

"Just lost Engine 3... and 2..... and 4!... We're in free fall!" Nova cursed as the ship lurched again. All was quiet. And we exited Hyper-Space.

There in front of us, was Tatooine. That's when the turbulence started.

"Oh dear Force..." Nova grumbled. Hoping away from the controls she screamed out, "Grievous, Vizsla, we need to get to the Escape Pods!"

They agreed on the way to the Pods, that they would fly to Coruscant that way. Clearing the way, Grievous sent Nova and Vizsla into pods and shot them off before entering his own.

"Why is it always my ship?" he sighed punching in the coordinates to Coruscant.


	2. A Coyote's Scream

The second Nova Brin entered the escape pod, she knew something was wrong. Maybe it was the over whelming sense of 'Oh Shit', or the short-circuited control panel. Before the young Sith could protest, she was launched into deep space by Grievous.

Nova then proceeded to beat the control panel senseless.

That was if it _had_ senses.

Beeping, whirring and sputtering, the panel sent out flashes of light. Miss Brin cursed. Delivering one last blow to the pod's system, a female's voice was heard.

"Now plotting course to Tatooine." Nova froze.

"No! No, no! Nice lady! I'm not going to Tatooine! Please don't-" Brin typed and slapped the panel more, but nothing happened. Screaming in frustration, she kicked the panel as hard as she could.

"Now... Plotting...Tatooine..." The woman's voice slowed down as pod's lights flickered and abruptly shut off. In fact, it wasn't just the lights, it was everything. Everything was off.

"God Dammit."

Ten hours later, Nova's pods had successfully crashed and lodged itself into a large sand dune, leaving Miss Brin to dig herself out.

And, after a good amount of sand and rocks being shaken out of her shirt and pants, Nova had recovered and was wandering aimlessly in the setting sun. Muttering about 'stupid droids, and malfunctioning pods'. Nova continued walking, not caring where she was going. The only thing she cared about was getting off this godforsaken planet.

She now understood why everyone hated Tatooine.

It was too hot in the day, too cold at night, sandy, dune-y, and harbored too many animals and hostile creatures for Nova to name off. It was just around _horrible._ Unless you were one of the grains of sand, dunes, animals, or hostile creatures that lived there, that was.

In any other cases, Tatooine _sucked._

And Nova didn't usually hate things like this. I mean, yes, she did have a rather pessimistic outlook on life. But really, when your job involves killing mass quantities of people, creatures or objects you can't really be a "Good morning Sunshine!" person all the time. Just look at Bane or Grievous. The only time they're happy is when they _are_ killing things.

But Nova had had it with the building up amount of sand in her boots and her long bright red hair. She screamed.

She screamed loud. _Really loud._

A long string of curse words and reasons why she hated Tatooine flew out of her mouth as she kicked the sand and punched near-by rocks. Yelping in pain as her hand collided with a large rock, Nova whined.

"I want to go _home_." Sitting in the sand, Nova watched the sun disappear from sight and the sky went dark. She groaned.

Trekking around in the canyons at night was going to be dangerous, and Nova knew that quite well. She had heard stories of Smugglers and Bounty Hunters who were attacked by Tusken Raiders and their Banthas... Let's just say, their fates were anything but tranquil.

And, almost one key, Nova heard the distinct scream of a Tusken.

"Shit."

On that note, Nova took off running away as fast as her legs could carry her away from the direction of the sound.

Breathing quite heavily, Nova slowed down and abruptly stopped, plopping down on her butt. Her breathing slowed and she laid back. She had ran far, fast.

At least running had kept her warm.

But now that Miss Brin had stopped running, she was starting to realize how cold it was out here. Oh how she would die for some food and a warm fire. Rubbing her arms and chattering her teeth together, Nova heaved herself up and frowned. Stopping and listening, Nova thought she heard laughing and singing.

Maybe she was finally loosing it.

Then, the overwhelming smell of smoke appeared. Someone was out here with her.

"Fire..." Nova mumbled. Following the sound, Nova made her way over some rocks and through a tight passage way. As she approached the source of the sounds, the wind whipped sand into her face and she brushed it away. In front of her, a group of armored men sat around the fire. One played some sort of instrument and sang. The other claped and sang along.

"...When a cool desert don't appear on no map, Coyote's scream rips the night in half, He hears the devil coming, Footsteps on the path, So he chews off his own leg to get out of the trap! And he's gon-" The man stopped singing and glanced back at Nova. The others jumped, grabbing their guns and putting their helmet on.

They were _Clones._

Oh, Nova hated Clones. The stupid little soldier-boys were nothing like droids. After all, droids did anything you told them to. Clones, actually processed the order and made the choice of doing it or not. Nova knew that if you tell a clone to jump off a cliff, odds are, it won't happen.

"Are you kidding me!" Nova screamed kicking the stone wall and cursing up at the sky. The soldiers raised their guns, aiming at Nova. Nova narrowed her eyes and reached for her lightsaber on her belt.

She sent a dazzling smile at the Clone Captain who raised an eyebrow. Nova then dropped the smile and looked at the ground near her feet.

"Where the force is my blasted lightsaber!"

Before she knew it, she was at the bottom of a pig pile of armored men. The boys grunted and tried to pin her down, as Nova struggled and kicked. She heard one of them shout "Sith!" and another one "Get her!".

Nova screamed, at the top of her lungs, the only word that came to mind: "RAPE!"

Well, Rex and Echo had successfully managed to tie the Sith's arms and legs together, restricting her from getting up. Sure it was a tough job, but after promising her food... She went with no trouble. Rex stared curiously at the sith. She didn't look like a sith and sure didn't act like one.

"Whatta ya' staring at?" She asked narrowing her yellow eyes.

"You." Rex retorted simply. Echo snorted. The Sith rolled her eyes and started to hit her head against the nearest rock.

"Please. For. The. Love. Of. God. Killllllll. Meeeeee." She said in between thumping her head. Rex chuckled along with Echo.

"Sorry Girly. Can't do that 'til the Jedi get here." Echo smiled. Rex thought he saw the Sith's eye twitch.

"Noooooooooo!" She mouthed glancing to the sky. Rolling his eyes, Rex tossed the girl ration bar. Using the force, she caught it before it hit the ground, and brought it to her mouth. Chewing on it happily, the ropes that had binded her against the rock suddenly flew off and hit Echo. Right it that cute face of his that Nova hated so much. With Echo rolling on the ground moaning, Nova saw her chance.

Standing up, the young sith smiled at Rex flirtatiously and punched him square in the face, knocking him out cold.

"See ya' later, Suckers!" The last thing Echo saw was Nova's figure being tackled by Master Skywalker.


	3. My Father

The last thing the redhead remembered was someone jumping on her and then knocking her over the head with something. What that something was, Nova Brin had no idea.

But, over the past 72 hours Nova had been hit with a lot of things. Rocks to the knuckles, sand to the hair, and a fairly large insect (which the species was unknown to her) to her face. The insect part she didn't even want to think about.

Now, as her blurred vision adjusted and she could make out 4 figures above her.

Mumbling and moaning, nova managed to crane out, "Who the force dropkicked my spine?"

Sitting up as much as she could, do to the fairly tight restraints, she glanced at the four people around her. The first person on her left seemed to be a young togruta who looked to be about 16. No doubt a padawan. A beautiful blue and white striped headdress donned her head while white face markings accented her cheeks. Nova narrowed her eyes. Stupid pretty padawan was stupid. Next to her was a tall dark hair man with a scar running over his left eyes. Both bright blue eyes were fixed on Nova as she scanned the room. Next in line was a tall and older man with a blondish red beard and hair. Stroking his facial hair thoughtfully Nova raised an eyebrow. He looked familiar…

"Are you-" Nova hadn't even finished her sentence when a hardy punch to the gut was received to her by the last man on the left.

Moaning, Nova looked up. It was the Clone Captain whose right eye was now swollen and black.

"Force, I didn't know I punched that hard…" Nova smiled at the man and winked, "I'll have to make it up to ya' later."

The Captain's fist was sent flying into Nova's stomach once again and she lurched forward, the sudden burning sensation flaring up in her ribs.

"Ehh… What do you want, jedi?" Nova spat.

"What did you have to do with the death of Calo Nord?" The older man asked. He eyes narrowed and brow furrowed.

Calo Nord… the name wrung a bell in Nova's head, setting off alarms of all sorts and most all confusion. Her head hurt too bad to think…

"Answer the question!" the younger man with the scar yelled.

"I-I… I-don't…" Nova stuttered and her eyes fell to the floor as she racked her brain for he answer.

"He was the only threat to the Omwati people's leader! The Separatists were to rid the threat and gain the trust of the Omwati people!"

That means Bane had completed his mission… but Nova couldn't remember… There was someone else who was supposed to be dead…

A punch to the face sent Nova's body to the cold stone floor.

"I thought… I though j-jedi never used this sort of… f-force…" She fought back tears as the searing pain tore through her face.

"Yes well, we have an exception."

Another figure emerged from the dark corner of the room. A figure Nova would have recognized anywhere.

"Nova… Calo was my father." Satine's face was streaked with dry tears.

Miss Brin's heart sank into the deepest pit of her stomach. That wasn't right. Pre wouldn't have-

Did he?


	4. Nova's Interlude

Satine crouched Near Nova and grasped her collar tightly and fists of rage.

"You knew! Didn't you! I thought I trusted you!" tears ran down Satine's pale and once gentle face.

"Satine! I swear, rid me of my powers and rob me of my riches, I didn't know!" Nova felt as guilty as ever. More so than the time she kicked Pre Vizsla in the jewels for pushing her out of the way of a malfunctioning droid's fire. Of course, she didn't realize the whole 'malfunctioning droid part' at the time.

"I want to help you. I know things the jedi don't about sith… and about the Separatists, please. Let me. I will do anything, I feel horrible."

This caught one of the men's attention.

"So, you want to change sides… So to speak?" He stopped stroking his beard and offered a hand to help her up. Graciously Nova took and stood.

"Of course. Satine, when I went undercover I lied to you about a lot of things… you being the best friend I ever had was not one." Nova looked Satine in the eyes, but she looked away in disgust.

"Sir, all do respect, how do we know she's not lying?" The captain spoke up once again and Nova groaned. Just because she was no longer a Separatist, doesn't mean she suddenly liked clones.

"For the love of force! I know I punched you in the face, but really!" Nova yelped. The young padawan chuckled.

"I think we can trust her Rex, the force tends to read people quite well." The young girl said. Nova smiled at her. Then, at the others in the room, showing off her white teeth.

"So, who want embarrassing stories on Grievous and Vizsla?"


	5. Problematic Bane

From The Ever So Entertaining Viewpoint of Nova:

Okay, okay. Well, maybe I got this whole 'Jedi's suck major force' thing wrong. I mean, Obi-Wan, the man Satine seemed to be crushing on, was actually a good-humored man. He even cracked jokes about himself! And I mean, this Skywalker guy, he was funny too! Ahsoka tended to laugh with me instead of making any jokes though… I don't think the pretty padawan trusts me yet…

But, even the clones had a sense of humor. And I _punched_ their CO in the face! I guess that was one of the good things about clones… unlike droids, they could laugh and joke and use dark forms of sarcasm just like the rest of us!

Well, maybe that 'dark forms of sarcasm' thing was _only_ Chopper, but still!

So, as we sat around the campfire, laughing and chatting and getting to know one another… I realized something…

When I was a sith, I never did this.

I was brought up to be tough, show no mercy. My master, General Fota was a dangerous man, and with one foot out of line, there was always a consequence. With these jedi, gently they would place you back in the right spot, as if to _help_ you. With the Seps, there was none of that. One more than one occasion I remember Grievous and Vizsla yelling at me when I was younger, telling me to be the best I could, have the wrath a real woman should.

Ya… Usually I told them to get out of my face unless they wanted to see that wrath…

But, that was how it worked with the Darkside. It was a dog eat dog eat bigger dog world. And more than once you were going to get bitten.

Whether the bite be from a lightsaber, you master, or one of the medic droids-

"Uh, Nova? Did you hear any of what I just said?" Satine waved a small fragile hand in front of my sunburnt face.

"Umm… Something about Jester and Chopper and the word osculate***?" I raised my eyebrow and saw Jester's face turn a bright shade of red.

"That was just a rumor!" Chopper stood and shouted. I snorted and so did Rex. Glancing at the Black eyed Captain through my good eye (he had punched the other one and had made it turn funny colors), he looked suspiciously back at me and I narrowed my eyes.

Certainly didn't like him.

"Anyway, you were saying Satine?" I smiled back at my blond friend who chuckled lightly and patted me on the back.

"What do you know about Bane and the others? Any weaknesses? Fears?" Obi-wan asked, continuing the previous discussion.

"Well," I started, "As all of you probably know, Grievous had got a horrible case of asthma. Too much running, or if you get him a little worked up, he'll have like a total lung spasm. Hmmm… Ventress is extremely self-conscious… call her fat and she'll a mini mental breakdown, vow to starve herself for a day, then come back and fight after she's lost 5 pounds."

I paused and looked at the total shock of the others around me.

"What? You've never wondered why she was so skinny?" I questioned, "Anyway, Vizsla has a total weak spot for his hair, Nute Gunray can't stand dirt, Dooku can't stand being called old even though he tries not to show it, Todo 360 has an off switch on his underside…"

By this time had most of the clone trooper around me doubled over laughing, except Rex. He was listening patiently.

"But… Bane tends to keep to him self. Even when he's drunk."

Obi-won stroked his beard, "That my dear, could be a problem."

*** To osculate means to kiss.


End file.
